Running Free
by Faith Everdeen
Summary: Katniss and Gale did run away after all as in The Hunger Games: Catching fire and now they are alone. An alternative ending to book 2, which i am posting chapter by chapter as i write, so please be patient.
1. What I Need

**Running Free**

_Gale and Katniss DID run away in Catching Fire, and this is a taste of their adventures. Unfortunately I had to kill off everyone else who they planned to take because it interrupted my story- they got killed when a mine blew up. Sorry xx. Written to the song 'Echo' by British girl band Girls Can't Catch. _

Run! Run! Faster! Make it all go away. Leave it behind, all the pain and death and heartbreak…

"Katniss."

I hadn't realised how fast I'd been running down the hill, almost falling over myself, sobbing hysterically. I stopped . Gale stood a few feet uphill from me, looking calm yet concerned, as he always did now. I felt the tidal wave of tears run down my cheeks. His expression softened.

"We have to stop. It's almost dark." He reached out to me, palms open. I grabbed his hands and collapsed into his hard, yet soft and always warm body, brokenly sobbing.

"Sshhh. Sshhhh." He murmured. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm always here." I nodded into his chest, choking as I felt the familiar wave of feeling rush through me. I needed him. I wanted him. He knew that, I knew, but he refused to focus on 'being in love' whilst we where in mortal danger, running from the world of people attacking us.

"I love you." I mumbled, loud enough for him to hear.

Silence.

* * *

" I found some berries." Gale looked up at me. We had hardly spoken since we had found our camp. The process of making our 'home' was familiar enough. He made the fire and I scraped together whatever I could find for us to eat.

"Edible?" He asked, his eyes boring into me to check if I was okay. I twisted my mouth into a shadow of a smile, the closest I would ever get for the foreseeable future.

"I've never seen them before," I said slowly, "but they were growing on a Golden Honeybush. My mother used to use the flowers in medicine, so they won't be poisonous."

"You're sure?" I nodded. He shrugged. "Well, I trust you, and they're better than nothing."

I shivered. It was cold, and the berries had only satisfied my hunger minutely. Gale put his arm around me, hugging me to him, which made me feel even worse. I felt as though I should have been doubled over at the pain of being so close to him and yet being so helpless. So this was love, huh? I breathed in, inhaling his scent of grass, the fire smoke, the sweet juice of the berries, _Gale_, my childhood, my home.

"I love you, too, you know." He broke the silence. I was surprised. Nowadays, it was unlike him to ever say anything that wasn't completely necessary. I choked up again.

"I know." I gasped. I sat up and looked him straight in the eye. " Exactly my point.."

He exhaled loudly. "Katniss, no. We are running from the all powerful Capitol! And all you can think about is sex!"

I frowned. "No. I think about other things, too. Like how I have almost been killed _in cold blood_, had to kill others, lost my whole family, left my whole world behind and have NOTHING LEFT TO LIVE FOR. Except you."

His expression, which had been slowly melting as I spoke, hardened again.

"No."

I frowned and went to get up, get away from him. Traitor. I stumbled, falling hard onto my side. My head span. Gale reached out to grab my shoulder, steadying me. What _on earth_ was happening to me!?! The worry in Gale's eyes echoed mine. I was overcome by the sudden despair in my chest. I fell forewards onto Gale, bursting into tears yet again. He held me until I had dried out every ounce of sadness I had ever held.

"Maybe it was the berries." I looked at him quizzically.

"What?"

"Your balance" Oh.

"But they haven't affected you at all." I noticed that he was now holding me at arms length and wriggled free.

"I feel….tired." He frowned to himself.

"Oh. I'm sorry, really. I don't mean to pressure you, I just.."

He smiled slightly.

"Katniss, just because I say no doesn't mean that I don't feel the same. I do understand." I stared into his kind expression.

"No you don't…" I started to say, but he had already pressed his lips to mine, more serious than I had ever seen him. The kiss didn't stop, and I responded automatically, unsure of how long it would last and determined to make the most of it.

I woke up slumped against his chest. It took me a moment to process his bare skin, and another to notice the cold. He shivered in his sleep. I wrapped myself around him, and my discarded clothes around both of us. He stirred and his eyes opened slightly. He smiled and kissed my hair.

"I said I loved you," He murmured.

The weeks passed, and Gale, although he felt closer to me, made no attempt to echo what happened that night. We kept alive, kept running.

We were reaching District Eight, Rue's home. According to some other runaways we had met, there was a labyrinth of tunnels and caves, unknown to the Capitol, where families could run to and live until they knew what to do. Nobody could stay longer than necessary, though, because even miles of space can get filled up.

I woke up first on the morning of our arrival. We were about five miles away from the fixed point where cave refugees met future cave refugees. Gale came up behind me as I erased all signs of our camp and fire.

"We won't be staying." He told me.

"I know." I replied, turning to face him.

"It's space for families..." He said slowly.

"And we're not a family?" I prompted.

"No, Katniss…I didn't mean that. I'm sorry." He sighed and walked away to pack up our small survival kit: saucepan, two knives, my bow and arrow, a blanket and two spoons.

"It's okay. It was mean of me to say it." I paused. "Whether or not you were thinking that."

We reached the high, smooth walls surrounding District Eight.

"Wait, Gale," I gasped. "I'm tired. Can we just wait a second?"

He looked worried.

"Really? But we've hardly walked far." He half mused, half asked. I let him trail off, muttering to himself. I clutched my side, sucking all the oxygen out of the air around me. I slumped into a sitting position on the floor. He turned around.

"Katniss, we have to go. They go to the meeting place at nine o'clock each day and they won't wait for us. They don't even know that we're coming." He repeated what we had been through countless times. I nodded.

"Okay, I'll lift you over first, but stay on top of the wall. Then grab the rope I pass you and tie it to the iron spike, so I can climb up. Got it?" I nodded again.

He reached for me, pulling me up and up until I was standing on his knees in one effortless movement. He wrapped his arms around my waist to lift me up. I reached up for the top of the wall, but I couldn't reach. I looked down. Gale was frozen.

"Katniss…." He let me drop. I stumbled and landed on the floor. He crouched down next to me and lifted my shirt just high enough to view my stomach. Which was smoother and rounder than it had ever been, sticking out at least two inches. I touched it, feeling the firmness that couldn't have been created by me putting on weight. I gasped.

"Do-Don't say it…" he told me, shaking his head as if to get rid of the image of what he had just seen. I ignored him.

"I think I might be pregnant." I told him, trying to sound more confident than I actually was. He glared at me, then made a strange choking sound. He balled himself up and buried his face in his arms.

We sat like that for a while, probably missing the meeting time.

Finally he looked up at me and, to my relief, he smiled.

"Maybe we will need to stay in the caves a while?" He asked. I smiled back through pure relief.


	2. Power, Control and Devany

Sorry about the mistake before- when I said District 8, I meant District 11.

**Summer Snow**

"In the _caves_?"

"Y-yes" stuttered the assistant. She bit her lip, unsure what the implication on caves meant. Was he angry, or confused, or incredulous or happy? She looked down at her hands, settled in her lap and reshuffled her papers as if looking for something. He said nothing more. She glanced up to see him deep in thought. She looked back down, sweat breaking out on her forehead as the panic erupted, choking her up, making it seem impossible to breathe….

The assistant passed out, flopping sideways off her chair and onto the floor.

"Hmmm" mused President Snow coming out of his daze. He stood up and walked around his desk, stepping over the unconscious girl without so much as looking at her. He walked over to his window and looked out, surveying what of the Capitol he could see.

"The caves…" His tone was not so expressionless this time, but infused with pleasure. He turned back around and looked at his assistant. She had been his seventh in three weeks. He frowned, and then left the room.

"So what do you want to achieve in your life?"

The girl sighed. She wanted power, riches and fame, but she couldn't say that to the interviewer. She raised her eyebrows sarcastically, hoping that the old man questioning her would understand.

"I want to serve my country" she told him slowly, as if reciting an almost-forgotten nursery rhyme "and keep it great." She smiled briefly, one flash of perfect, white, pointed teeth. The man looked slightly scared.

"Thank you, …?"

"Devany. My name is Devany." And with another flash of a smile she stood up and left, before he even had a chance to dismiss her.

"So…..Devany." The President surveyed her through narrowed eyes. She narrowed her eyes back at him, across the table.

"You think you have what it takes to be my assistant?" He seemed quite entranced, looking into her soft violet eyes. Finally she spoke, breaking his gaze.

"Obviously." She raised her eyebrows. "Or I wouldn't be here."

He nodded in acknowledgement. Her doll-like stature looked even less hard-wearing than her predecessor, who had been full of blue eyes and blonde hair, but her features contradicted it in a way that was almost clashing. Her striking were violently catlike in shape, making her constantly look about to strike down some helpless prey. Her deathly pale, wrinkleless skin was framed by a thick mane of dark brown hair that seemed to move on its own. He would never stop marvelling the accomplishments of the beauty industry, even if so many of their creations were completely ghastly. He sighed. She was perfect.

"You have the job." He whispered, then left the table. Devany stared after him, her usually expressionless eyes brightening with malice.

"Katniss Everdeen." Were the first words Devany spoke in his office. She shooed her escort out of the room.

"You let her escape?" Her voice twisted up into a shriek at the end of her sentence. For the first time in his life, he felt weak. How stupid. He barely knew the girl.

"We don't know that for sure." He told her sheepishly.

"Yes we do! I suppose you haven't even _checked_ the surveillance of the explosion?" She glared at him. "We have proof! She got away! As did her little boyfriend! And the other boy!"

"What!?!" The President sat up, startled. "Which other boy?"

"The boy from the games. The other half of the 'star-crossed lovers' act." She threw him a disgusted look. The President exhaled loudly. This would have caused any other member of staff complete, all-consuming terror, but Devany just stood over him, watching him with a disdainful look on her face. She bent down and whispered menacingly in his ear.

"The one thing you get right you don't even do properly." She cocked her head to the side. "Are you becoming a failure? Losing that drive that made you President in the first place?" She straightened up and strode out of the room. The President groaned and slumped down on his desk in defeat.

"And _what _do you propose to do for the Games?" Devany was back. Yet again, the President was being ridiculed. He groaned again.

"Do what we have always done. Punish the people." Devany went silent. The President watched her slowly turn around. She was furious.

"Is this _really_ the most powerful man in Panem? A blithering _idiot_? We _can't _carry on with the Games how they were because a) it's the _Quarter Quell_ and b) _The entire country is in uproar_!" She screamed her last words. "So, I'll ask again. _What do you propose to do for the Games_?" The President did not know what to say. He had really been too busy plotting the downfall of Katniss Everdeen and firing assistants to do anything. He had assumed that, in the light of the uproar, they wouldn't take place. He told Devany this and she pulled an expression that clearly said she wanted to bang her head- and his- against a wall.

"If you don't have the Games, then the lesser-rebelling districts will know that you leadership is breaking down and that there is no hope for the…more distinguished people of the Capitol, and that we will all one day end up living in squalor." She paused. "And it will be your fault."

"What do _I_ propose?" Devany acted surprised, and flattered, that he had asked her. After four days of watching him struggle with the Hunger Games, the President knew she was expecting this. She saw everything. She knew everything. Whilst this my make her a powerful ally, it also made her very annoying. She also made him feel exceptionally weak, like when his father had beaten him as a child. He did not want to go back to that situation. She also belittled all the work he had done on the Everdeen child. He had threatened and blackmailed her quite well, he thought, until Devany pointed out that she had escaped. _She_ would never have let that happen, she claimed. _She_ was always prepared. She'd probably come up with an idea days ago. The President sighed.

"We use criminals. Those who have sinned will face the consequences. Oh, and in case you're wondering, by 'criminals' I mean the people you managed to catch whilst they were rebelling. Every district's got one. Or thirty." She allowed herself one smug, scheming smile. "And, if you catch her, Katniss Everdeen would be eligible for it. Providing you can manage that." Her expression turned sour. They were sitting in the vast Dining Hall, as Devany had insisted. She had told him that he mustn't be cowering in his office, hiding from Panem, but he must be out, and fighting on the front line. Or at least look like it, she had added.

"Of course we can." He tried to sound confident. "We know where she is. In the District eleven caves."

"Hmm." She didn't sound convinced.

"And we always have Roscoe." He reminded her hopefully.

"We have Roscoe." She repeated, sounding thoroughly unenthusiastic.


	3. Roscoe

"You are so kind, especially in times like this. We are so grateful."

Gale's 'Thank You's broke through my stunned daze. Supposedly, we were in a large, hollowed out cave underground, but it was no cave. The ceiling, which, in it's dome shape, was also the walls, panelled with brightly painted stones, stretched so far above us it's patterns and murals were almost lost in the gloom. It was about the size of half the village back in District Twelve, sectioned off into tiny homes by huge lengths of a tightly woven black fabric I had never seen before. The spirals and shapes woven so delicately into it reminded me of Cinna, and I felt a sharp pain in my chest, showing me where, in my heart, he had been.

He was talking to a tiny, hunched over old woman, who would have looked on her deathbed if it hadn't been for her small, bright , beady eyes regarding me with a certain…disapproval.

"We have space." She told me. "You will behave." My eyes widened at that. What did she think we were, children? I opened my mouth to retaliate, but Gale put his hand on my wrist.

"We will. We appreciate how lucky we are." The woman scrunched up her face.

"Hmmmm." She muttered, after long deliberation, before throwing back her head and screaming.

"Roscoe! Roscoe! Lazy child! Where are you? Roscoe!"

Nobody came. I sighed and slumped down to the floor. Gale shot me a worried look.

"I'm fine," I whispered, "just tired."

We sat there for an hour, waiting. The woman settled down on the floor and stayed there, scowling.

Eventually a tiny girl burst into the room. She looked at the woman on the floor and then at me. She had a heart shaped face, covered in grime except for two clean tear streaks, still shiny and wet. I stared at her, my heart in my chest. Rue. Her dark hair, her tiny figure. I gasped, choking on the tears in my throat. Gale looked at me from the other end of the room, over her shoulder.

The woman stood up slowly, then walked towards the girl. She raised her hand and slapped the girl around the face. More tears slid down the girls face, which seemed to infuriate the old woman.

"There's no time for tears, stupid girl!" Her voice was harsh and coarse, growling at the child. She shoved her hard, in the stomach, and that's when I saw how frail she was. "Sort them out, now. Brain dead, lazy waste of space." She muttered, then straightened up and left.

Gale walked over to the girl, who was crumpled against the wall, her eyes closed. He crouched down next to her and she opened her eyes, wincing.

"Hello." He whispered.

"Hello." She breathed. "I'm Roscoe." She looked away from his sympathetic, comforting face, directly into my eyes. "Rue's accidental sister."


End file.
